Why Did Gene drop Christopher Pike?

Personally, I think "The Cage" was one of Star Trek's most interesting episodes. It's much deeper and introspective than, oh, say, "And the Children Shall Lead". The question is, why was Pike dropped, but Nimoy retained as Spock? The pilot set up everything, a chain of command, and even romantic interplay between Pike and two of his officers. (Ironically enough, Gene repeated that theme of "long-running relationship" with Kirk and Yeoman Rand for the first season.) But by the next episode, (the one with the salt-eater, which wasn't nearly as deep) Pike and his entire bridge crew (minus Spock) have disappeared. Of course, Pike reappears later on, but even so...why did Roddenberry decide to drop him?

Personally, I think "The Cage" was one of Star Trek's most interesting episodes. It's much deeper and introspective than, oh, say, "And the Children Shall Lead". The question is, why was Pike dropped, but Nimoy retained as Spock? The pilot set up everything, a chain of command, and even romantic interplay between Pike and two of his officers. (Ironically enough, Gene repeated that theme of "long-running relationship" with Kirk and Yeoman Rand for the first season.) But by the next episode, (the one with the salt-eater, which wasn't nearly as deep) Pike and his entire bridge crew (minus Spock) have disappeared. Of course, Pike reappears later on, but even so...why did Roddenberry decide to drop him?

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He didn't drop the character, he changed the characters name to James Kirk because, as noted, they had to recast when Hunter declined to do the second pilot. Perhaps in the back of his mind Roddenberry had already considered using the pilot as a way to cut costs.

Which is a good thing too. I know there are a lot of running jokes made at Shatner's expense but I swear Hunter didn't change his facial expression the entire episode. For some reason he seemed generally pissed off the entire 45 minutes. I'll grant him that he didn't really get much of a grace period to evolve his character. That being said, I loved the episode.

Although really, early first-season Kirk is the exact same character as Pike -- a serious, driven, brooding, lonely starship commander. He only evolved into a different character as Shatner's performance influenced the role and (probably) as the writers came under network pressure to make Kirk a more conventional '60s action hero.

After all, the name change to "Christopher Pike" happened very shortly before shooting began. For most of the development process, the captain was named Robert April (which eventually got used as the name of a separate character in the animated series), and I think it was briefly Winter or something before he settled on Pike. So changing "Pike" to "Kirk" was just another name switch to start with.

So theoretically, Roddenberry could've just hired Shatner to take over the role of Pike, the way pilot actors are often recast in the series (like Willow in Buffy, Ginger and the Professor in Gilligan's Island, Father Mulcahy in M*A*S*H, the entire pilot cast of the UK Being Human, etc.). And by the same token, he could've just recast Dr. Boyce with Paul Fix and then DeForest Kelley (who was the actor he wanted all along anyway), since Boyce, Piper, and McCoy are also essentially the same character. But instead he decided to change the names each time he recast a role. Maybe that was because he had the foresight that he might want to recycle the pilot as a flashback (especially once the network pretty much nixed the entire pilot cast as inadequate), or maybe it was just because he kept changing his mind about what to call his characters.

Which is a good thing too. I know there are a lot of running jokes made at Shatner's expense but I swear Hunter didn't change his facial expression the entire episode. For some reason he seemed generally pissed off the entire 45 minutes.

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I wouldn't say Hunter was a bad actor, but he did have limited range. He could do "angry" and he could do "brooding." And minor variants thereof.

And remember, the second pilot was completely recast except for Leonard Nimoy as Spock.

Although really, early first-season Kirk is the exact same character as Pike -- a serious, driven, brooding, lonely starship commander. He only evolved into a different character as Shatner's performance influenced the role and (probably) as the writers came under network pressure to make Kirk a more conventional '60s action hero.

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I beg to differ. I think they were similar, but not exactly the same. Kirk was more serious in the beginning, but he also had a sense of humor and at least cracked a smile from time to time.

I do prefer Captain Kirk from Season One over the others, but on the whole I'm glad Shatner had the role instead of Hunter. While Hunter might have been entertaining in a different way, I don't feel like he'd have lightened up enough based on how I've seen him characterize other roles. Shatner has a more approachable appearance about him as well. He's just easier to like.

Personally, I think "The Cage" was one of Star Trek's most interesting episodes. It's much deeper and introspective than, oh, say, "And the Children Shall Lead".

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I think, ultimately, that was the problem. Pike was a guy who, in the pilot, was tired of being a captain, tired of the responsibility, and wanted -- or thought he wanted -- a quiet life on earth. Can anyone imagine Kirk being the anti-hero of "The Cage?" Not possible. Kirk is a guy whjo *must* be in command, *must* have that responsibility. While I think that makes Pike more realistic, more human, for the kind of adventure show NBC and Roddenberry wanted, I think in the end they needed Kirk to be the captain, someone who isn't going to question his own command abilities.

Personally, I think "The Cage" was one of Star Trek's most interesting episodes. It's much deeper and introspective than, oh, say, "And the Children Shall Lead".

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I think, ultimately, that was the problem. Pike was a guy who, in the pilot, was tired of being a captain, tired of the responsibility, and wanted -- or thought he wanted -- a quiet life on earth. Can anyone imagine Kirk being the anti-hero of "The Cage?" Not possible. Kirk is a guy whjo *must* be in command, *must* have that responsibility. While I think that makes Pike more realistic, more human, for the kind of adventure show NBC and Roddenberry wanted, I think in the end they needed Kirk to be the captain, someone who isn't going to question his own command abilities.

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Well we're viewing Kirk through the lens of three seasons of TOS and six or seven movies. But if you look at the Kirk from those early season one episodes he's not all too different from Pike. With Pike we only have that one episode. IIRC, the Cage was just one of the possible stories they might have used as a pilot. I wonder what our view of Pike would be it they used on the other ideas.

I beg to differ. I think they were similar, but not exactly the same. Kirk was more serious in the beginning, but he also had a sense of humor and at least cracked a smile from time to time.

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First off, a lot of that was a difference in the actors' interpretations. Pike has a few lines that could've come off more whimsically had Shatner delivered them, like "Now you're talking like a doctor, bartender."

Second, as Nerys Myk says, we can't assume the way Pike was portrayed in "The Cage" was his normal personality. His crew was recovering from a violent incident that had taken several lives, including that of the captain's yeoman. He was in mourning, he was bitter, and he was wondering whether it was all worth it. But as we saw at the end of the episode, his "vacation" on Talos IV shattered his illusions about another life being better than what he already had, and he returned far more content than he'd been at the start.

While I think that makes Pike more realistic, more human, for the kind of adventure show NBC and Roddenberry wanted, I think in the end they needed Kirk to be the captain, someone who isn't going to question his own command abilities.

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Are you kidding? Kirk questioned himself all the time. In "The Naked Time" his big freakout was about resenting the burdens of command and just wanting a woman to hold and a beach to walk on -- that sounds exactly like how Pike felt in "The Cage." In "Balance of Terror" he expressed plenty of doubts about his command judgment and needed McCoy to talk some sense into him, just as Pike needed Boyce.

And realistic and human was exactly what Roddenberry wanted. His goal from the start was to make an SF show that was on the same level as the most acclaimed, serious, naturalistic dramas of the era, as far as possible from the cartoony, fanciful stuff like Lost in Space. He used comparisons to the acclaimed drama Wagon Train to pitch it and the series bible encouraged writers to approach it with the same character realism and credibility they'd bring to writing for Gunsmoke or the documentary-style police drama Naked City. The show strayed from that somewhat in the latter seasons, and the movies even more so, which has led to the modern perception of the TOS cast as larger-than-life space-opera heroes. But they were meant to be very naturalistic characters, believable people doing a job that just happened to be in space, and in the first season you can see that very clearly.

The show strayed from that somewhat in the latter seasons, and the movies even more so, which has led to the modern perception of the TOS cast as larger-than-life space-opera heroes. But they were meant to be very naturalistic characters, believable people doing a job that just happened to be in space, and in the first season you can see that very clearly.

Which is a good thing too. I know there are a lot of running jokes made at Shatner's expense but I swear Hunter didn't change his facial expression the entire episode. For some reason he seemed generally pissed off the entire 45 minutes. I'll grant him that he didn't really get much of a grace period to evolve his character. That being said, I loved the episode.

Which is a good thing too. I know there are a lot of running jokes made at Shatner's expense but I swear Hunter didn't change his facial expression the entire episode. For some reason he seemed generally pissed off the entire 45 minutes.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't say Hunter was a bad actor, but he did have limited range. He could do "angry" and he could do "brooding." And minor variants thereof.

And remember, the second pilot was completely recast except for Leonard Nimoy as Spock.

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The only non-Trek role I've ever seen Jeffrey Hunter play is Jesus. I've seen numerous movie portrayals of Jesus, and Hunter is the best that I've seen. I loved the whole part of the Sermon on the Mount, and I'm atheist!

Jeffrey Hunter, who played Pike in the original pilot episode, didn't want to come back.

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My understanding is that Hunter's decision came from career advise he received from his wife, she wanted her husband to push for movies roles, and she didn't take seriously this little science fiction series out of a declining studio.

The only non-Trek role I've ever seen Jeffrey Hunter play is Jesus. I've seen numerous movie portrayals of Jesus, and Hunter is the best that I've seen. I loved the whole part of the Sermon on the Mount, and I'm atheist!

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He's perfectly adequate in The Searchers and The Longest Day, if you're interested in seeing more of him.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for those to come on TV. We've got a couple of classic movie channels, and I've been able to see some great older movies there. I don't have Netflix or any other online services, and I don't do video stores anymore.

Something about those incredibly gorgeous eyes that just mesmerize me...

My understanding is that Hunter's decision came from career advise he received from his wife, she wanted her husband to push for movies roles, and she didn't take seriously this little science fiction series out of a declining studio.

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Well, we don't know that for sure. All we know is that his wife is the one who came to see the screening of "The Cage" and told Roddenberry that her husband wasn't interested in returning for a second pilot. We don't know whether she was the instigator or just the messenger.

The only non-Trek role I've ever seen Jeffrey Hunter play is Jesus. I've seen numerous movie portrayals of Jesus, and Hunter is the best that I've seen. I loved the whole part of the Sermon on the Mount, and I'm atheist!

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He's perfectly adequate in The Searchers and The Longest Day, if you're interested in seeing more of him.

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I also enjoyed him in Sergeant Rutledge. It's worth a look.

Also, I realize this is off point, but looking back: Jeffrey Hunter had a stroke and died in 1969 at the age of 42. In retrospect it was probably a good thing that we got Captain Kirk instead of Captain Pike in long run.

What would the Star Trek movies have been like if the actor who played the captain of the Enterprise had died between the series and the movies?

So why was Hunter replaced by William Shatner as Enterprise captain after the first pilot? The official reason given at the time is that Hunter decided not to do the series, but wished to work on feature films rather than TV, as he had done most of his career. This version is still supported by some, including Bob Justman and Herb Solow in their Inside Star Trek (1996). They state that his wife Dusty Bartlett gave them the verdict: "This is not the kind of show Jeff wants to do, and besides, it wouldn't be good for his career. Jeff Hunter is a movie star." (page 63) At the time, Justman was First Assistant Director of the show (later co-producer), and Solow was Executive in Charge of Production for Desilu, where Trek was being made. This version is also supported in the book Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry (1994) by David Alexander, which includes the letter Roddenberry wrote to Hunter in which he states "I am told you have decided not to go ahead with Star Trek. This has to be your own decision, of course, and I must respect it." Roddenberry then asks Hunter if he would come back for "one day or two of shooting an additional action opening which can result in a fast, tightly cut, exciting film release." (page 225) Inside Star Trek states that Hunter refused to do this. (page 251) In Films and Filming magazine of April 1962, Hunter stated his attitude toward working in TV when he said, "I haven't done too much TV, for two reasons. First, the nine years I was under contract my availability to television was controlled by the studio. Secondly, there is not much superior material to be found on TV. The man hours and the talent needed to turn this material out is far exceeded by the total number of hours that must be programmed to fill time." So he was probably ambivalent about working on Trek in the first place.

Yet strangely, other "insiders" insist that Hunter did not return for another reason. Leonard Nimoy says in his I Am Spock (1995): "Jeff Hunter was let go when his wife began to represent him and made what Gene (Roddenberry) considered excessive demands." (page 32) William Shatner amplifies this in his Star Trek Memories (1993) by saying that Hunter's wife "began to frequently storm into Gene's office, loudly making demands" about how Jeff was to be treated. Shatner continues, "Gene later told me that he'd much rather be dealing with Jeff and his agent, or even Jeff and a gorilla, than Jeff and his wife. He continued that there were so many tantrums, restrictions, and ultimatums being laid out on the table that he finally thought, 'Well, I can't possibly do an entire series like this. They'll drive me nuts.'" (page 70)